Biotech feeds, Are they safe to eat?

GOOD Morning to you all again. Looking out the window of an airplane, You can see the winding, paths of rivers below, except for man made waterways, all rivers have one thing in common-they are all crooked. The reason is simple –they follow a path of least resistance.

Rivers find their way around anything that blocks their flow, because they take the easy way. This could also be said of a lot of people. Because they fail to resist the devil, they yield to temptation and deviate from the path of God, the one he would have them follow. Writing to followers of Christ, John said that we can be victorious in our struggle against evil because “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”. Rather than being overcome, we can be overcomes. Nothing should deter us from the course God wants us to travel.

Lets pause for a moment: We need a strength to keep us true, ad straight in everything we do, We need power to keep us strong when we are tempted to do wrong, we won't go astray on the straight and narrow way.

Our topic, the term “Biotechnology” has sparked controversy in recent years. Much of the controversy is fueled by activist groups who perceive genetic enhancement as some how unnatural. There is also concerns about introduction of genes on the environment. I have done a lot of research on this subject, to help farmers understand it better. Biotechnology is a remarkable technology that has produced many benefits to consumers. Unfortunately, many people do not have the information they need to short out the facts from the fear about this technology and its benefits, I hope my column will help people to understand it better.

Today's biotechnology is simply a more precise means of doing what has been done for centuries. Through conventional breeding =striving to develop crops and foods that have desirable characteristics. These might include protection against insect pests, which minimizes the need for pesticides, higher crop yields or improved nutritional properties. Conventional plan breeding was done through trial and error. Scientists could spend up to 10 to 15 years crossing plants and growing. Them to bring out certain characteristics from the tens of thousands of Gene's that each plant possesses. Oil seed rape, for example (the progenitor of canola) was one of the successes of this type of crossbreeding. In fact, rapeseed oil was an industrial lubricant unfit for human consumption until canola was genetically modified to become low erucic acid rapeseed oil, which eliminated some of its anti-nutritional properties. Today, it is one of the healthiest oils on the market. Most foods consumed today-like corn, wheat and tomatoes are long-term, conventional breeding success stories. And now, through genetic modification, desirable traits can be selected and more quickly incorporated rather than waiting a decade for results, Genes from different species often highly related, the same genetic material maybe found in multiple species. New genetic materials adds selected special characteristics to the new plant.

These special characteristics or traits benefit everyone, both the consumer and the farmer. I've heard people ask, do livestock consume biotech feeds, the answer is yes, livestock have been fed biotech feeds since biotech crops were first introduced in 1996. Recently, livestock feeds have been improved using modern methods of agricultural biotechnology, such as recombinant DNA technology. This has been referred to as genetic modifications.

Crops developed using modern methods of agricultural biotechnology are referred to as biotech crops as opposed to crops developed using conventional plant breeding. Two important types of commercially available biotech crops include crops tolerant to herbicides and crops protected against insect pests. Both conventional and biotechnology techniques have benefited agriculture immensely because they make feed more plentiful and affordable. When inputs are less costly, so are the outputs purchased by consumers, such as meat, milk and eggs.

Farmers raise biotech crops because they are reliable and profitable than conventional first, the amount of insecticide applied to insect protected crops is reduced. Yields of corn, and soyabeans are increased in many instances. The majority of these cost savings are enjoyed by the grower. Overall, the cost of producing an acre of the crop is reduced and some of these savings can be passed on to the consumer. Well friends I hope this has been of interest to you. I will continue next week. Until then take care. See you.